Four soldiers were killed and two wounded when a bomb hit a military vehicle traveling in the southeastern Turkish province of Mardin on Friday, security sources said.

The vehicle was on patrol between the villages of Yazdir and Taslikli in Mardin's Savur district when a handmade explosive was detonated, the security sources said. The two wounded soldiers were being treated in hospital, they said.

In another attack in Sirnak, east of Mardin, one police officer died and seven security force members were wounded by a bomb during the search of a house by security forces, security sources said.

Turkey's largely Kurdish southeast has been hit by waves of violence in clashes between government security forces and members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) after a ceasefire fell apart last year.

On Friday authorities lifted a curfew imposed to fight Kurdish militants in an area of southeast Turkey's largest city, Diyarbakir. The one-day curfew in Silwan district was lifted from 4:30 p.m. (1:30 GMT).

Thousands of militants and hundreds of civilians and soldiers have been killed since the PKK resumed its fight for Kurdish autonomy last summer, ending a 2-1/2-year ceasefire and a peace process.

The government has ruled out any return to the negotiating table and has said it will crush the PKK, which is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.

The bombing of security force vehicles and installations is common in the southeast. On Monday a car laden with explosives smashed into a military base in Diyarbakir province, killing one soldier and wounding 20, hours after the government cabinet adjourned in the region.

More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict since the PKK took up arms in 1984.

(Reporting by Seyhmus Cakan and Seda Sezer; Writing by David Dolan; editing by John Stonestreet and Dominic Evans)

Source:
courtesy of REUTERS

by Reuters

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